The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property, which means every time you sell it, trade it, or even buy a cup of coffee with it, you could trigger a taxable event. In other words, that $6 latte you paid for with Bitcoin might come with a side of capital gains, the most expensive foam you’ll ever drink. Cheers!

This week’s lineup:

• October 15th is coming: What the final filing deadline means for you

• From fairways to federal court: A bizarre golf hustle meets the IRS

• National treasure, international tax disaster: The IRS vs. Nicolas Cage

October 15th: Your Last Chance to File

If you filed your taxes back in April, congratulations, you’re done! You can continue living in blissful ignorance of tax forms and the deeply personal question of whether a dog-walking business counts as self-employment (it does).

But for the rest of us — the procrastinators, the spreadsheet-averse, the “I needed more time to find that one receipt” crowd — October 15th is the real last call. This isn’t a suggestion or a friendly nudge. It is the final filing deadline, but only if you properly filed for an extension back in the spring.

Think of it like asking your professor for more time on an essay: you got the green light, and now the final, no-more-excuses due date is here. If you never asked for that extension in the first place, you might already be in hot water.

An Extension to File Isn't an Extension to Pay

It’s the most important detail to remember: the extension you filed gave you more time to file your paperwork, not to pay what you owed. That bill was technically due on April 15. If you haven't paid yet, the IRS will happily take your money now, but they'll add penalties and interest for the delay.

The sooner you file and pay the remaining balance, the less you'll owe in the long run. And remember, you’re technically on time so long as you postmark your return by the due date.

So what’s the big deal? Let’s talk fines and penalties.

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From Fairways to Federal Court: The Kim Brothers vs. The IRS

Of all the ways one might run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service, you have to admit, creating a shadow empire controlling the tee times of Southern California’s public golf courses is a particularly novel one.

It’s a story that has everything: identical twins, the quiet, contemplative sport of golf, and the kind of aggressive capitalism that would make a Gilded Age railroad baron blush.

Our protagonists are Se Youn “Steve” Kim and Hee Youn “Ted” Kim, 41-year-old twin brothers who, by day, worked as MRI technicians — a perfectly respectable, if not wildly exciting, profession. But by morning, they were the undisputed kings of the fairway.

A Monopoly on Morning Mist

According to federal prosecutors, the Kim brothers operated what can only be described as a tee-time black market. Between 2021 and 2023, a period when the pandemic made an open-air activity like golf more popular than ever, they allegedly cornered the market on reservations.

Imagine the scene: ordinary folks, honest citizens just wanting to hit a bucket of balls at sunrise, would log on to a municipal course’s website the second tee times were released, only to find them all gone. Vanished. Snatched up in an instant.

The culprits? The Kims, allegedly, armed with multiple devices and a network of “unspecified friends,” securing the most desirable slots before anyone else could even type in their credit card number. They’d then resell these times to desperate golfers via messaging apps like KakaoTalk for a tidy profit.

They weren't just booking a few slots; they were booking thousands, creating a veritable monopoly across at least 17 different courses. It was brilliant, in a diabolical sort of way.                                        

They thought they scored a hole-in-one with their scheme. Find out how the IRS plans to correct their scorecard.

If your finances are a dumpster fire and the IRS just showed up with a gas can, it might be time to call for backup.

TaxQuotes is the emergency service for your worst tax nightmares. Whether you're facing down unfiled taxes, trying to stop garnishments, or just tired of unreliable tax pros, they've seen it all.

Click here for a free consultation and let them put out the fire.

 National Treasure, International Tax Disaster: The IRS vs. Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage didn’t just spend money. He torched it, exorcised it, hurled it into the void. This is a man who raked in $150 million in a single decade and still owed the IRS $14 million.  His financial saga is part cautionary tale, part Hollywood fever dream, and entirely too fascinating to ignore.

So how exactly does one go from Oscar winner to dinosaur-skull repossession? Let’s roll the credits.

Act One: The Rise of a Very Extra Taxpayer

The Cage Collection (Exhibit A in the Audit)

At peak excess, Cage’s portfolio looked less like an investment plan and more like a treasure map gone feral: 15 homes (yes, fifteen), castles in Germany and England, twin New Orleans mansions (one allegedly haunted), a private island in the Bahamas, and, because restraint was never in the script, a shrunken pygmy head.

He snapped up a Gulfstream jet, albino cobras, and a $276,000 dinosaur skull later returned to Mongolia. Jurassic debt, anyone?

The Pyramid Scheme (Literal, Not Figurative)

His pièce de résistance?

A nine-foot limestone pyramid tomb he commissioned in a New Orleans cemetery. Its purpose remains murky, its symbolism undeniable. When the empire collapsed, the pyramid endured. An eternal flex amid fiscal rubble.

Act Two: When the IRS Came Knocking (And Kept Knocking)

The $6.2 Million Wake-Up Call

By 2009, the IRS had tired of Cage’s improvisational finance routine. They slapped him with a $6.2 million federal tax lien tied to unpaid 2007 taxes.

But that was just the teaser trailer. Like a franchise that refused to end, the liens multiplied: property after property, debt after debt, until the tab ballooned to a brutal $14 million.

Turns out, you can outspend your own box office.

Enter the Villain: Business Manager Samuel Levin (Allegedly) 

In a courtroom subplot worthy of its own spin-off, Cage sued longtime business manager Samuel Levin for $20 million, alleging fraud, negligence, and reckless navigation.

Levin’s counter? Cage was the captain, ignoring every iceberg warning while flooring the throttle.

Who was right? Probably somewhere between. But the wreckage was undeniable: seized sports cars, lost castles, and one lonely shrunken head waiting for adoption.

The spending was legendary. The IRS's response was the blockbuster finale.

The quick (and slightly prickly) stories we didn’t have time to get to:

• A tax court told two Atlanta Braves legends their $50 million property valuation was “firmly planted somewhere in the realm of fantasy,” upholding a hefty penalty against them for an exaggerated charitable deduction.

• Many taxpayers are still seeing delayed 2024 refunds from the IRS, with processing held up by a range of issues from late submissions and amended returns to fraud flags and simple paper-filing errors.

• The ethanol industry is urging the Treasury to finalize the wonky but crucial rules for the 45Z clean fuel tax credit, asking for clarity on everything from carbon intensity calculations to exported fuel.

• Paying employees in crypto? The IRS’s new Form 1099-DA is coming to complicate your life and could create major tax headaches for your team if you’re not tracking cost basis correctly.

Think you're a tax whiz? Prove it with our trivia question below.